Source: MTV Original Date of Publication: 30 Jun 2010
“Harry Potter” star (and recent MTV Movie Awards winner) Tom Felton has seen his star rise steadily since first gracing the big screen as Draco Malfoy in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Fans have watched the young actor evolve from a one-note bully to a complicated and sometimes vulnerable villain.
When MTV News caught up with Felton at the opening of Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, we asked him about Draco’s growth over the course of the eight films, as well as whether he thinks his character is really all evil.
“From my character’s point of view, a lot has been left to interpretation,” Felton said, pinpointing an important-yet-subtle moment from the final film, in which Draco is tasked with the painful decision of whether to help or hinder his nemesis’ progress. “[There is] one take where you want to help Harry. The books, I think, kind of left it up to the interpretation of the reader, really, so one way you internally want to help him, the other side where you’re just confused, so I’m intrigued to see which bits David [Yates] cuts out of it.”
Regarding Malfoy’s not-so-bad, tortured side, Felton said “Potter” creator J.K. Rowling helped him understand a softer side. “Jo always talked about him as being vulnerable,” Felton said. “Most bullies are. They’re actually hugely insecure and have their own problems, and he has the worst parental guidance of any child I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Felton added that when he and Daniel Radcliffe have discussed their characters’ dynamics, they see them as two sides of the same coin. “Harry has these great influences, even though his parents have passed,” Felton said. “Draco, he’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t, really. He’s kind of stuck.”
